Arrived at the Bang Saphan station around 10:30pm after a ten hour train ride (which was surprisingly easy, pretty views and nice breeze in the car—lots of ladies offering up snacks through the window at stations.) Rushed off to see what we needed to do to get our bikes, but easy-peasy, there they were.

Rode to our place in the dark, got barked at by lots of dogs. We arrived and realized the hotel lady had sent the car for us, which was very sweet. She’s kind of a nut, super smiley and sweet. We went up to room showered and promptly fell asleep.

We had breakfast downstairs: eggs, toast, and octopus hot dogs. Thought breakfast was over but then a crazy fruit parade arrived: papaya, mango, pineapple, dragon fruit…so delicious but so much fruit! It was nuts. Sat at the beach for a while after breakfast (Stu body surfed, much to the awe of the little German kid sitting on the beach with his mom) and then rested in the room. Packed up and went to leave, but our sweet hotel lady offered to make us lunch. Wound up with big plates of rice and spicy stuff: super, super good. She wouldn’t let us pay— “I made it for you!” —and walked us to the end of the road. Really really sweet.

Biked 25km, some on the highway and some on pretty rural roads, to Ban Krut. Took a pretty road alongside a canal that was alongside the sea—neat colorful fishing boats moored in the canal and very small-time, sweet farms along the other side of the road. Arrived at our spot, The Seascape.

Settled in to our little place, which is run by an old swede and his Thai wife. Swede’s son Martin is there daily, super big, blocky Swedish dude with a ridiculously square head and a wacky assortment of tattoos: jaggy biker cross that looks like an eight grader did it, Chang elephants (of course), and a big #1. He splits his time between Thailand and Sweden where he works in a DHL warehouse. (Later spotted him zooming around on a scooter with some babe who was staying at the hotel.)

We had one full rest day in Ban Krut, and we rented a scooter and went up to a pretty temple and zoomed around. Had a good lunch at a beautifully landscaped resort full of old people, I got a massage in an oddball little spot across from a 711, and Stuart napped. The massage was great: tiny little toad-y Thai lady bent me around and stretched me out. Later Stuart and I went to the beach and swam a bit, before taking the scooter down the beach for dinner at a neat little seaside shack. Had some great pork belly sauteed with greens, and some weird noodles in gravy. (Gravy, turns out to not be a good bet in Asia.) Drank a couple big beers and zipped home to bed.